question

[navajo]

I have a WW I "bolo" knife, tang stamped 1917 and CHICAGO. Not worth 2 cents as a military collectable. Some one has used the spine as a hammer and it has lots of corrosion. Also, no sheath and the handles are missing.

Does any one know what type of steel was used for thses knives?
Can anything be done with this knife?

Thanks

[Fox Creek]

Depends on what you want to do, but if you just want to use the bolo for a beater, and to do rough work in the yard, it will be fine for that. Just file out the worst dings and gouges on the spine, if it is mushroomed from being driven with a metal hammer, just file the off and round the spine. Wire brush off rust and oil well. Coarse steel wool and oil works nicely. Imagine that even the edge is fairly soft. It may be tough, but you should be able to file it with a new file. Steel? I imagine that it may vary from batch to batch but I would suspect 1080. These are not rare, and are worth, well less than $100, sometimes, well less. But a LOT more than 2 cents. Neat piece of history though. As far using it to make another knife from, it would be a lot of work to take it apart and try to re-shape or reforge the blade..... always seemed to me to be better off starting with something non-knife to make a knife than making a knife from a knife. :cool:

[TexasJack]

Obviously the steel must not be too bad or it wouldn't have survived this long with all the beating it seems to have taken. I agree with F.C. that it might not be the best thing to use to start a completely new design, but it sounds like you could clean it up and make a pretty usable bolo style knife out of it. Who knows? With a bit of work and some decent material for the handle, it could come out being pretty sweet!

[navajo]

Thanks, folks. My idea was to slap some new handles on it and use it for camping and other outdoor stuff. I have a big pile of growing brairs and other useless foliage at the south end of my lot. Be perfect for that.